गुप्त अभिलेख संग्रह (जे. एफ. फ्लीट - गुप्त सम्राटों एवं परवर्ती नरेशों के ऐतिहासिक पाषाण व ताम्रलेख)

284 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
The inscription simply records the name of the Mahâsâmanta¹ Śaśâṅkadêva. The
age of the characters would justify us in identifying him with the Śaśâṅka (She-shang-
kia), king of Karṇasuvarṇa (Kie-lo-na-su-fa-la-na) in Eastern India,—the contem-
porary and murderer of Râjyavardhana II. of Kanauj,—who is mentioned by Hiuen
Tsiang as a persecutor of the Buddhists.² And, if this identification is accepted, it will
refer the inscription to just about the commencement of the seventh century A.D.
TEXT.³
1 Śrî-mahâsâmanta-
2 Śaśâṅkadêvasya
TRANSLATION.
Of the illustrious Mahâsâmanta Śaśâṅkadêva.
No. 79; PLATE XLIII C.
SARNATH STONE INSCRIPTION OF PRAKATADITYA.
THIS inscription, which has not been previously brought to notice, is from a stone
that was discovered by General Cunningham at Sârnâth,⁴ close to Benares. It has now,
I think, been sent to the Imperial Museum at Calcutta.
The writing, which covers the entire front of the stone, about 2' 0½" broad by 1' 6"
high, has suffered a great deal of injury; especially towards the bottom, where the first
halves of lines 12 to 16 are now quite illegible; and I have to acknowledge some very
appreciable assistance from Dr. Bhagwanlal Indraji, in respect of some of the more point-
edly damaged passages. In addition to its being so worn, the extant record is only a
remnant of what was originally engraved. Nothing is lost at the top and bottom; but
parts of the original stone have been cut away at the sides, evidently in order to adapt it
to some building purpose; and the verse commencing in line 3 and ending in line 4,
shews that at least eighteen letters have been destroyed in this way, between the last that
is legible in line 3 and the first in line 4; the general run of the inscription seems to shew
that nearly the whole of what was thus cut away, came at the ends of the lines. Also,
as may be seen in the lithograph, two round holes were drilled in the stone for some pur-
pose or other, about half-way down.—The average size of the letters is about ⅛". The
characters belong to the northern class of alphabets; and, except that the Kuṭila
characteristic is only discernible in a few places, e.g. in nitarâṁ nishkampaḥ, line 7, they
are of almost precisely the same type as those of the Aphsaḍ inscription of Âdityasêna,
¹ Mahâsâmanta, lit. ‘a great chief of a district,’ is a technical official title which, as noted above
(page 15, note 4), seems to denote the same rank as Mahârâja.—Next below the Mahâsâmanta came
the Sâmanta. This latter title is of equally frequent use, in its technical value, in other inscriptions.
In the present series, however, it is only used in a general way, to denote ‘feudal chiefs;’ e.g. in line
5 of No. 33 (see page 148 above, note 1), and in line 1 of No. 80 below, page 288.
² See Beal’s Buddh. Rec. West. World, Vol. I. p. 210 ff., and Vol. II. pp. 42, 91, 118, 121.
³ From Mr. Beglar’s rubbing; so also the lithograph.
⁴ See page 281 above.